As part of Aga Khan University’s lecture series, Dr Iftikhar Salahuddin, an ENT surgeon and artistic photographer, will deliver a lecture titled ‘The Ottoman: Last Muslim Empire’ on January 31, at the auditorium of the university.
Iftikhar Salahuddin who specialises in a branch of medicine, has in recent years become known for his avid photography, and his photographs have been exhibited and published in well-known magazines.
His interest in history took root during his extensive travels through several Muslim countries. He has been invited by universities in Pakistan to speak on Muslim history. The talk will focus on the vast Empire of the Ottoman Sultans stretched from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and over six centuries ruled over wide swathes of Europe, Asia, and Africa, including Islam’s sacred cities – Mecca, Madina and Jerusalem.
After World War I, the allied powers divided the defeated empire into several countries, spawning internecine feuds, which, even a hundred years later, continue to engulf the region. The last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was forced to abdicate in November 1922, after which Mustafa Kemal Pasha proclaimed Turkey a Republic.
Dr Iftikhar is also the author of Jerusalem- A Journey Back in Time, which shared the 2014 Peace Prize awarded by the Federal Republic of Germany at the Karachi Literature Festival.